Separation elements, such as sliding elements, sliding doors or roller shutters, are often used to divide rooms or to close room openings or window openings. Separation elements, which often comprise a glass panel, may fixedly be mounted or fixed to carriages which can be displaced along a rail and possibly mounted so as to be rotatable.
A device for holding glass panels is known for example from [1], WO 98/59140 A1, wherein two mounting parts to be introduced into a recess in a glass panel can be connected to each other with a connecting part which can be guided through a hole provided in the glass panel and thus holding the glass panel in a positively locking way. The glass panel can thereby be adjusted with an eccentric adjuster which is introduced into the hole. Inaccuracies which have arisen during the machining of the glass panel can thereby be compensated for. An adjustable connecting screw is held between the two parts of the device, within the recess of the glass panel, the connecting screw being connected to a carriage guided in a running rail.
A further device for holding a glass panel is known from [2], EP 0 586840 A1. For the adjustable mounting of the glass panel in a receiving groove of an upper frame batten the glass panel comprises circular holes for example in the vicinity of the two ends of the top region, through which circular holes mounting elements are passed. Each mounting element consists of an anchor with a shell surface which is approximately cylindrically symmetrical about an adjusting axis. The shell surface meshes with an inner surface of a holder placed on the anchor. The anchor engages with axially projecting anchoring pins into continuous anchoring grooves arranged laterally in the receiving groove. The edge of the hole in the glass panel contacts the holder on an outer contact surface which is rotationally symmetrical about an eccentric axis parallel to the adjusting axis and spaced apart from it by an eccentricity. The holder can be drawn away from the anchor and, rotated by a multiple of an increment about the adjusting axis, be placed on the anchor again, whereby the vertical position of the contact surface in relation to the anchor and hence the position of the glass panel in relation to the frame batten changes.
The devices known from [1] and [2] are suitable for the assembly of single-layer glass panels which have considerable disadvantages in comparison with composite safety glass. On the one hand there is a risk of falling and also a risk of glass breakage and, on account of the released glass splinters, a notable risk of injury.
Composite safety glass, with which the above-described disadvantages are avoided, consists of two or more glass panels which are connected to each other by an intermediate layer (PVB films) lying therebetween. The intermediate layer is tear-resistant and viscously elastic. If, upon overloading of the multi-layer panel through stop and impact, the glass breaks, resulting fragments remain, stuck to the film (a “spider web” cracking forms). The opening remains closed and the view is extensively maintained.
Composite safety glass has further advantages. The integrated films can be graphically formed and used as advertising or information areas. For this, coloured or printed films can be incorporated between the glass panels which reliably protect the film. In addition, when using clear glass and clear films, transparency is scarcely impaired.
A disadvantage with composite safety glass, however, is that it can hardly be mounted with the known mounting devices, for example the devices known from [1] and [2].
It should thereby be taken into consideration that the two glass panels of the composite safety glass are normally pre-manufactured and then connected to each other by the film. The holes or recesses in the glass panels do not usually lie, after connection thereof, concentrically over each other due to manufacturing tolerances. The arising deviations horizontally and vertically typically lie in the region of maximum 2 mm.
Insofar as the composite safety glass is to be held by a cylindrical element, it must be selected to be smaller than the diameter of the holes or recesses, so that an disturbing clearance arises. Furthermore, in most cases, only one of the two glass panels lies on the cylindrical element, so that a high load upon only one of the glass panels results within only one of the recesses. Furthermore, the adjustment cannot be easily carried out.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a device, by which a composite glass panel, possibly a composite safety glass panel, formed by two glass panels connected to each other can be mounted in a frame element which is possibly connected to a carriage guided in a rail while avoiding the above-described disadvantages.
In particular, a device is provided, by which the two glass panels of the composite glass panel and thus the composite glass panel itself can be mounted in a clearance-free way.
Furthermore, a device is provided, wherein the forces acting locally on the two glass panels of the composite glass panel are evenly distributed and are as small as possible.
Furthermore, a separation element is provided which comprises a composite glass panel connected to a frame element.